Shadows:The Fourth Dimension
by Candy Canes are Delicious
Summary: W.I.T.C.H is up against a new enemy,and a pretty devious one at that.How will the W.I.T.C.H girls deal with their foe this time, when all they see are shadows?


** Disclaimer: I do not own W.I.T.C.H. ^^**

Irma was bored. Mr. Collins had been blabbing about Alexander the Great for the past half an hour, and Irma didn't understand a word of it. Worse still, she's woken up late and had had no time for the delicious pizza her mother had baked, fresh out of the oven. The best she had been able to do was to grab a slice as she had been running out of the door, and that was _definitely _not enough for an 'active girl like her.

"Therefore, modern evidence has proven that the historical value of these artifacts is huge as they belong to the time of Alexander the great. So..." Mr. Collins blabbered on.

Irma looked at Hay Lin, sitting peacefully next to her, a look of intense concentration on her pretty face. Irma's bored-o-meter was reaching epic levels. She looked at Hay Lin, sure that her intense concentration was on something unrelated to the world of ancient history.

Who did Hay Lin think she was fooling? Irma knew that Hay Lin was actually somewhere in dreamland. Well, that wasn't Irma's business. She proceeded to pull out a pencil and practice some new pencil twirling techniques she's seen in a video yesterday. _You never know_, she thought, _they might come in handy in case we run up against bad guys with nothing but our schoolbags and zero powers._

Irma twirled her pencil expertly. She imagined that she was in a battle against a group of mutant baddies. _Hi-yah! Wah!Wacha! Waaa-_

"Ouch!" Hay Lin gave a little yelp and glared balefully at Irma, before brushing her arm where the pencil had hit her. "What was that for?"

"Sorry," Irma grinned. "Guess I went a little overboard again, huh?" Judging by the look on Hay Lin's face, Irma had been right about her daydreaming. Hay Lin had been daydreaming about the alien convention which was going to take place that weekend while putting on an I-am-listening-to-the- teacher- expression. However, Irma had rudely interrupted her fantasy of stunning the judges with the completely original, out of this world alien costume which she had designed. Well, she could certainly fool Mr. Collins, but she certainly wasn't going to fool Irma.

"That hurt!" Hay Lin rubbed her arm. "There was no need to practice your stunts in class just because you were bored!"

"My pencil was just checking whether you were actually listening to Mr. Collins' spiel about ancient artifacts," Irma said airily. "Looks like _somebody_ was dreaming about crazy alien costumes instead of paying attention to the teacher."

"Yeah, as if you were," Hay Lin replied. "I bet you were probably lamenting the fact that you only managed to eat one measly slice of pizza before rushing to school this morning. Awww, poor you," she teased.

"Well, one little piece is better than none," Irma said. "Besides, she'll probably have some waiting for me when I get home..."

"...provided that your little brother doesn't polish it off first," Hay Lin said cheerily.

Irma glared. "Yeah, way to go for ruining my hopes of hot, delicious pizza, Hay Hay." She looked up to see Cornelia (who was seated in the row next to the, two desks ahead) making frantic shushing motion s with her finger.

"Um, hay hay? I think Corny's trying to tell us to zip it?"

"What? It's not like I'm the one poked my desk mate with a pen-"

"Ahem! Hay Lin, do you have anything interesting to share with the rest of the class? Stand up, please!"

_Oh man, _thought Hay Lin as she scrambled to her feet. _If Mr. Collins puts me in detention because of this, I'm gonna miss Will's house today! Quick, say something! _ She opened her mouth to say something, but her brain was blank.

"Well?"

"Um, I was just telling Irma that ancient artifacts are so exciting!" Hay Lin smiled widely and gestured towards her textbook. "They're really fascinating, especially the symbolic designs around the edge, and, err, all the tombs and stuff!

Mr. Collins gave her an odd look. "Hay Lin, there is no mention on tombs in this chapter. Were you listening or daydreaming?'

"Um..."

_Uh-oh, _Cornelia thought_, Hay Lin is _this_ close to getting a detention, never mind that this is the first time we've had a normal girl's sleepover for weeks. No way am I going to let that happen!" _

Cornelia muttered something under her breath. A swirl of green magic escaped her finger. _That should do it_.

Its effect was immediate. 5 seconds later, the school bell rang: _10 minutes early._

"Rrrrring!"

The entire school erupted into cheers, and students grabbed their bags and rushed out of the classroom, ignoring Mr. Collins attempts to get them to sit down. Irma, Hay Lin and Cornelia joined the droves of students thronging down the school corridor like wild beasts released from captivity, ignoring Mrs. Knickerbocher's cries of 'Back to your classrooms! School isn't over for another 10 minutes!"

"I don't understand this," Mr. Collins scratched his head. "That's the third time this month." And he gathered his teaching material and hurried out of the classroom after the students.

"Well, that was lucky," Hay Lin grinned. "Thanks, Cornelia."

"No problem." Cornelia glanced at Irma. "Though I wouldn't have to come to your rescue if it wasn't for _somebody _getting up to various antics during class."

"Hey, I was bored. And starved of pizza," Irma defended herself. "What was a girl to do in that situation?

"Oh, I don't know. Practice her stunts in her head _only_?

"Just because you have unearthly interest in early Manchurian artifacts or whatever nonsense Mr. Collins was jabbering on about, it doesn't mean the rest of us _normal_ humans are complete history psychos!"

"Manchurian artifacts? Mr. Collins didn't even mention that!"

"Hey guys, I see Will! And Taranee!" In an effort to distract the two warring factions, Hay Lin grabbed Irma's bag and pointed to the front of the school building, where Will and Taranee were standing. "Let's go!"

"Hey guys," Taranee waved. "What's up? Who needed rescuing from a dire situation this time?"

"Oh, no one in particular. It's just that Little Miss Irma decided to practice pencil twirling in the middle of history class, using Hay Lin's arm as the target," Cornelia explained sweetly.

"Hey!" Irma protested. "I said I'm sorry! And I didn't do it on purpose!"

"Guys, calm down," Will said, playing peacemaker as usual. "We've got more important things to discuss."

"Yup yup!" Hay Lin agreed cheerily. "Like our W.I.T.C.H sleepover at Will's house tonight!"

"Oh boy, how could I forget?" Irma said in delight. "Our first sleepover in months which doesn't have _anything _to do with baddies trying to do us in or with weird stuff going on in every corner of Heatherfield!"

"Finally, we can just have fun like normal girls!" Cornelia tossed her hair. "I mean, I think being a Guardian is great and all, but we totally need a break. So does my hair."

"Vanity is a sin, Cornelia," Irma chuckled,"but I'll forgive you just this once.

I'm sure nothing will happen this time!" Taranee declared confidently.

"Don't say that!" Hay Lin exclaimed in alarm. "You'll jinx it!"

"Don't worry, Hay Lin," Will said, "it'll be fine. After all, _what_ could possibly happen?"

"If you say so," Hay Lin sighed. Then she brightened. "Hey, did you hear about Karmilla's latest CD?"

"Of course!" Irma grinned. "And this time, it includes two bonus soundtracks, including one by up-and-coming band, the Habanera Peppers!"

"I think the Black Tomatoes sound better!" Cornelia said.

"Yeah? Since when do _you_ ever listen to music?"

"Who lost his mind and made _you_ an expert?"

"Guys..." Will sighed.

And so they were off, a group of teenage girls bickering good-naturedly. And they were going to have a sleepover that night. A completely normal, unmagical sleepover (except for some minor pranks involving their powers, of course), right?

Wrong. And if being Guardians should have though the W.I.T.C.H girls one thing, it's this:

_Never assume anything._

**Author's note: Thanks for taking the time to read my story. Read and review, please :D**


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